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I've noticed that there are a few board-gamers on these forums, but no thread other than a few scatter shot suggestion threads, and the odd thread for specific games. High time we corrected that, I say.

So bring your questions, your play reports, your reviews and especially your general enthusiasm for dice, chits, cards, wooden blocks and paper money.
Looking for someone to play with? Check out the GWJ Online Boardgame Group!

I play a lot of Diplomacy, mostly online. The turns wind up running a week or so, but otherwise it's just as good as face to face.

Right now I'm waiting for Fall 1901 to resolve. That game gets to be a knuckle biter when you're waiting to see who stabs you in the back first.

Could you please post a link to where you play it online? Wisiwig and I are going to be playing our first game in a few weeks and the instructions alone are intimidating.

I'll also take this chance to pimp my board game weekend, KeithKon. I'll edit that into a link when I have something to link it to. We had the first one last year around labor day and I think we're looking to do it around the same time this year.

I've heard a lot about Space Alert, and would love to try it out. It sounds like a hell of a trip, especially when you're figuring out how well your planning and teamwork went.

Space Alert is serious fun... with the right crowd. I've played with a couple of people that just completely shut down during the real-time part of the game. You need to be willing to speak up, give orders, make split-second decisions and not be afraid of making mistakes. If everyone is into it though, the game rocks. There's an expansion out recently I want to pick up as it adds campaign play which could be lots of fun. Certainly one of the more unique games out there.

What my buddy and I decided is that when we play it with 3 other warm bodies, it's going to be crucial for one of us to be the Captain, who is in charge of co-ordinating the rest of the crew's actions, and the other one to be the Communications Officer, who handles the grunt-work of responding to the CD, placing cards on the board and the like. You need those two roles to be done by someone who has an understanding of how the game flows.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You've never known true joy until you've shaken a lich stick at someone.

I play a lot of Diplomacy, mostly online. The turns wind up running a week or so, but otherwise it's just as good as face to face.

Right now I'm waiting for Fall 1901 to resolve. That game gets to be a knuckle biter when you're waiting to see who stabs you in the back first.

Could you please post a link to where you play it online? Wisiwig and I are going to be playing our first game in a few weeks and the instructions alone are intimidating.

I'll also take this chance to pimp my board game weekend, KeithKon. I'll edit that into a link when I have something to link it to. We had the first one last year around labor day and I think we're looking to do it around the same time this year.

Do tell, fellow Jersey-ite.

Well, there's not that much to tell right now. When we start planning in earnest I'll post in this thread. Last year's party was basically all of our friends, a good portion of which weren't into board games and so probably won't be invited this year. Thankfully I seem to have goodjers to take their place. My house isn't that big but we had four rooms with board games and people outside playing dominoes (since they won't blow away). We started at around 10:00AM and most people left after dinner. I hope that if more board game fans show up that we can play for longer, but we'll see.

I play a lot of Diplomacy, mostly online. The turns wind up running a week or so, but otherwise it's just as good as face to face.

Right now I'm waiting for Fall 1901 to resolve. That game gets to be a knuckle biter when you're waiting to see who stabs you in the back first.

Could you please post a link to where you play it online? Wisiwig and I are going to be playing our first game in a few weeks and the instructions alone are intimidating.

I'll also take this chance to pimp my board game weekend, KeithKon. I'll edit that into a link when I have something to link it to. We had the first one last year around labor day and I think we're looking to do it around the same time this year.

Do tell, fellow Jersey-ite.

Well, there's not that much to tell right now. When we start planning in earnest I'll post in this thread. Last year's party was basically all of our friends, a good portion of which weren't into board games and so probably won't be invited this year. Thankfully I seem to have goodjers to take their place. My house isn't that big but we had four rooms with board games and people outside playing dominoes (since they won't blow away). We started at around 10:00AM and most people left after dinner. I hope that if more board game fans show up that we can play for longer, but we'll see.

Diplomacy is very easy. 2 beat 1, 3 beat 2, etc. That's really all there is to it. Because there are no dice and every player is roughly equal, things tend to stagnate quite easily in terms of conflict. So you work out deals to gain numerical or positional advantage. It's one of those games that once you get started in, you'll 'get it,' and then everything is pretty simple.

"The number of things I’ve seen on the internet that I wish I could unsee has gotten so large that I’m beginning to forget them. So, I win, I guess." -First World Problems

I've heard a lot about Space Alert, and would love to try it out. It sounds like a hell of a trip, especially when you're figuring out how well your planning and teamwork went.

Space Alert is serious fun... with the right crowd. I've played with a couple of people that just completely shut down during the real-time part of the game. You need to be willing to speak up, give orders, make split-second decisions and not be afraid of making mistakes. If everyone is into it though, the game rocks. There's an expansion out recently I want to pick up as it adds campaign play which could be lots of fun. Certainly one of the more unique games out there.

What my buddy and I decided is that when we play it with 3 other warm bodies, it's going to be crucial for one of us to be the Captain, who is in charge of co-ordinating the rest of the crew's actions, and the other one to be the Communications Officer, who handles the grunt-work of responding to the CD, placing cards on the board and the like. You need those two roles to be done by someone who has an understanding of how the game flows.

Yeah, that's the thing about Space Alert that's stood out most to me: it seems you need at least one experienced player and/or everyone to totally buy into the premise. Otherwise it would be like playing Werewolves with quiet people, but an order of magnitude more frustrating.

Gravey, I'm never sure, on a scale of 1-10, just how serious you are when you post. – Minarchist

Since several of you are mentioning NJ, if you aren't too far from Philadelphia, you should consider checking out EPGS, the Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Society. There are two main meetings each month at the Oxford Valley Mall community room on the first and third Saturdays of the month from 10:00AM - 9:30PM. We regularly get anywhere from 20-40+ people attending, so there are lots of opportunities for a variety of different games. More details can be found at EPGS.org.

Of course, there are plenty of people holding smaller game nights at their homes and so on. But those tend to be invite only. A bit farther south, GCOM, Games Club of Maryland (gamesclubofmd.org) has a large number of meetings that actually occur in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. So there is quite a bit of organized gaming in this part of the country for people who are looking for gamers and opportunities to play lots of different games.

"Great, power's out and the girl is trapped... I swear to God, if there's a zombie around the next corner..."
-Nathan Drake - Uncharted 2

I play a lot of Diplomacy, mostly online. The turns wind up running a week or so, but otherwise it's just as good as face to face.

Right now I'm waiting for Fall 1901 to resolve. That game gets to be a knuckle biter when you're waiting to see who stabs you in the back first.

Could you please post a link to where you play it online? Wisiwig and I are going to be playing our first game in a few weeks and the instructions alone are intimidating.

I'll also take this chance to pimp my board game weekend, KeithKon. I'll edit that into a link when I have something to link it to. We had the first one last year around labor day and I think we're looking to do it around the same time this year.

Do tell, fellow Jersey-ite.

Well, there's not that much to tell right now. When we start planning in earnest I'll post in this thread. Last year's party was basically all of our friends, a good portion of which weren't into board games and so probably won't be invited this year. Thankfully I seem to have goodjers to take their place. My house isn't that big but we had four rooms with board games and people outside playing dominoes (since they won't blow away). We started at around 10:00AM and most people left after dinner. I hope that if more board game fans show up that we can play for longer, but we'll see.

Diplomacy is very easy. 2 beat 1, 3 beat 2, etc. That's really all there is to it. Because there are no dice and every player is roughly equal, things tend to stagnate quite easily in terms of conflict. So you work out deals to gain numerical or positional advantage. It's one of those games that once you get started in, you'll 'get it,' and then everything is pretty simple.

Awesome! Thanks for the links. I have a feeling that once we get into it we'll like it and the online option is good because the people we're playing with are expecting a baby soon and probably won't be in for game nights for a while.

Wife and I have been playing lots of games of Memoir '44 over the recent months. Until we played Pandemic, it was her favorite game. I picked up Battles of Westeros a couple weeks ago to try something new. I haven't gotten beyond gluing all the figures together yet. Hopefully one of these weekends we can sit down and go through the 30-something pages of rules with the board set up.

Really looking forward to some Stark vs. Lannister action in the near future.

Wife and I have been playing lots of games of Memoir '44 over the recent months. Until we played Pandemic, it was her favorite game. I picked up Battles of Westeros a couple weeks ago to try something new. I haven't gotten beyond gluing all the figures together yet. Hopefully one of these weekends we can sit down and go through the 30-something pages of rules with the board set up.

Really looking forward to some Stark vs. Lannister action in the near future.

I've enjoyed that one quite a bit, but it's tricky for me to find an opponent. Must be nice to have someone right there.

Once you read through the manual, make sure you grab the cheat sheets off BGG. They really do a nice job of breaking the rules down to a quick and easy reference, especially the universal head sheets. There's only one rule missing from that sheet that I could find: When ordering units, you may discard any two order tokens of the same type to order any unit.

<+Vector_> I was imitating you, like a parrot imitating a dumber parrot

But since the game is based around making money, not conquering Europe, and since control of any nation can be bought for the right price, it makes for some very interesting player dynamics.

Definitely a very interesting game for those wanting to play something a bit different. The turns are quick and are full of decisions, but there's a lot of turns before the end, hence the length. If you've got a group with the right mindset, I'd definitely recommend it.

Thanks for the write-up. Seems like a pretty cool game along the lines of 1830 with the investment stuff and separating players from the game's primary entities. Unfortunately, I've only been able to play 1830 through its computer implementation from SimTex. Anyone have experience with the board game version?

Also a big fan of Telestrations. Yeah, you don't need to the game to play it but the dry erase flipbooks are nice. I think the collection of words and phrases they have are good too, with a few "make up your own" tossed in for fun. It keeps you on your toes because you'll get something passed to you that you know could not have possibly been the original word, but you just gotta run with it

Not a fan of Shadow Hunters, but I've only played it once. Felt too similar to Bang which I really dislike (too random and drawn out). Saboteur fills that niche for me.

Gunner wrote:

Seems like a pretty cool game along the lines of 1830 with the investment stuff and separating players from the game's primary entities. Unfortunately, I've only been able to play 1830 through its computer implementation from SimTex. Anyone have experience with the board game version?

Imperial is far less complex than the 18xx games. We tried playing 1856 once and failed miserably I'm not sure if 1830 is more or less complex than 1856 but wow did we struggle to get through that. Unfortunately none of us had played before and it's tough to find rules online, so we ended up referencing the rules way too much. Ideally you'd have someone at the table who has played at least once to teach you as there's a lot going on.

At this point, though, I'm pretty unlike to give an 18xx game another shot. Simpler games like Railroad Tycoon and Imperial are just easier to table up and scratch that itch. I'm sure the 18xx games are great once you get into them but we rarely focus on one game enough to get to that level of familiarity.

Imperial 2030 is on my list of games to buy eventually. It sounds awesome.

I'm having a board game day on Saturday after a bit of a hiatus. I can't wait!

I bought it for Toph513 at Christmas last year (in lieu of buying it for myself). It's awesome. i was really impressed with it. If you ever want to give it a try, come to one of our game days. We get together ever 3 weeks or so and play stuff. Just 2.5 hours West!

@Crispy: Count on a Twilight Imperium game on this year's IGWJD. That's happening with both expansions (new one is coming out) and as many people as we can get to play.

Imperial 2030 is on my list of games to buy eventually. It sounds awesome.

I'm having a board game day on Saturday after a bit of a hiatus. I can't wait!

I bought it for Toph513 at Christmas last year (in lieu of buying it for myself). It's awesome. i was really impressed with it. If you ever want to give it a try, come to one of our game days. We get together ever 3 weeks or so and play stuff. Just 2.5 hours West

I would absolutely love to, but with a little girl at home and an otherwise very tight schedule, I can't escape for a weekend and expect to stay married/alive. If you're still doing them in five years, I'll plan on being there!